On
29 August 1994, I was faced with one of the strangest cases of my life. A 39
year old male Bhure Lal was found dead in a garden in Vasant Vihar area of the
capital. He had gone out in his Maruti car to meet his friend Ballo, on the
previous night at about 8 pm. It was heavily raining when he went out, and his
wife Monica implored him not to go out in such heavy rain. Heavy rain had caused
electric failures in some parts of city. There were no streetlights on the road,
and it was difficult to find one’s way in such dark night, especially
as the heavy downpour had further reduced the visibility almost to a nil. Clouds
were thundering and flashes of lightning could be seen among the clouds off
and on, with great thundering noise. There had even been lightning strikes two
times, with great crackling noise. The time was perfect to sit at home and enjoy
a cup of tea. But Bhure Lal wouldn't listen. Ignoring his wife’s cautions
he set out to meet Ballo.

Bhure
Lal's eagerness to meet Ballo wasn't entirely unjustified. He had lent Rupees
two lakhs (Rs. 200,000) to Ballo about two years back, to help him start a new
business venture. The deal was that Ballo would return the money along with
appropriate interest within one year’s time. But even after one year,
Ballo had been unable to repay even the original amount. Since then Bhure Lal
had been pestering Ballo off and on for the sum. The final date that he had
set was 28 August for the repayment of loan. On 29th morning, Ballo was leaving
for Madras for a period of about 2 months. Bhure Lal knew that if he did not
settle the matter on that very night, he would be held by another 2 months.
So he wanted to settle the matter that very night itself. That was the reason
he went out on that rainy, thunderous night without heeding to his wife’s
advice.

Bhure
Lal had left the house at 8 pm. If everything had gone well, he should have
returned by 10 pm, or at the most by 11 pm. But he didn’t return that
night at all. At 12 midnight, Monica tried to phone Ballo, but the heavy downpour
had disrupted all telephone lines, and she could not get through. She was worried
the whole night. She couldn’t go out herself to look for him because of
the heavy downpour. She thought that may be her husband had got late and decided
to spend the night at Ballo’s house. The next day, the police found Bhure
Lal’s dead body in the park as has been described earlier. His car was
found parked on the outside of the park.

This
was the story when Bhure Lal’s body was found. Suspect number one was
naturally Ballo. He owed Rs. 2 lakhs to Bhure Lal, and he was pestering him
for money for a long time. Ballo indeed have a very strong motive to kill Bhure
Lal. The police theory that Ballo had killed Bhure Lal was substantiated by
many facts. Bhure Lal’s cloths were ripped open as if he had been involved
in a struggle. His boots were also damaged. In addition, Bhure Lal had suffered
head injury too.

Ballo
was not to be found in Delhi. He had left that very morning to Madras. This
further strengthened police’s belief that Ballo had killed Bhure Lal.
A police party was sent to Madras to track him down. He was soon brought to
Delhi. But when he was asked about the murder of Bhure Lal, he seemed completely
surprised. He not only strongly denied his hand in the murder, but asserted
that he had not even met him the previous night. The police however did not
believe his version, and put him under intense interrogation. But try hard as
they would, Ballo would not come out with a confession.

It
was at this stage that the case was brought to me. I demanded to see the dead
body at once. From external appearances of the dead body it did appear as if
someone had killed him. Out of curiosity, I searched his pockets. There were
some sundry objects in his pockets including his car keys, a fountain pen and
some coins. What was most surprising was that they had distorted very badly.
It appeared as if someone had melted them in a pot. I also found a pen knife
in his pocket. When I opened the knife, the iron blade attracted small pins
as if it were a magnet. It appeared as if someone had magnetized the knife blade.
Like a flash of lightning, the whole story flashed in my mind. Nobody had killed
Bhure Lal. He had been killed by lightning.

Facts
about lightning

A few facts about lightning first. It is a phenomenon when there is an electric
discharge between the highly charged clouds and the earth. The undersurface
of a cloud is usually negatively charged. Thus virtually all discharges are
negative. Approximately 5% of lightning flashes, however, are positive discharges.
These are most frequent in mountainous regions.

During
lightning, one can see a huge flash of lightning between the clouds and the
earth. It appears as if light is “falling” on earth. That is why,
in common parlance, it is also known as “Bijli Girna” (in Hindustani
language). It is estimated that every year about 2 billion light flashes strike
the earth, killing twenty people a day and hurting eighty more!

Lightning
releases tremendous amounts of electrical energy. As we have seen, it is an
electrical discharge from a cloud to earth. The electric current from lightning
is of the order of about 20,000 Amperes, and comes at a voltage of 100 to 1000
million (108-109) volts! A single flash lasts for a very
small duration however - just about 1/1000th of a second.

20,000 Amperes is a huge amount of current. In our normal daily life, currents
of even 1 Ampere are not encountered, so scientists usually talk of a lesser
quantity known as milliamperes. One ampere is equal to 1000 milliamperes. To
get some idea of how much a milliampere is, one must know that in an ordinary
household electric bulb of 100 watts running on 250 volts (in India), a current
of only about 400 mA (milliamperes) flows (For the more mathematically minded,
the formula is Wattage = Voltage x Amperage. So one could calculate the amount
of current in one's own country. If, say, the current is supplied at 120 Volts,
as in some countries, like USA, the current passing through the same bulb would
be about 800 mA). From this one can get a rough idea as to what 20,000 Ampere
means!

Let
us understand in another way what 20,000 Ampere means. When a current is flowing
through a wire (or through the human body, for that matter), what is actually
flowing through the wire (or the body) are tiny ball like structures known as
electrons. These balls are too tiny to be seen with the naked eye or even with
the strongest microscopes. More the number of electrons flowing through the
wire, stronger the current. How tiny these electrons are, can be estimated from
the fact that 6.25 quadrillion electrons (this number can be written by writing
625 and then adding 13 zeros after it!) must pass through a wire or through
the body every second to set up a current of just 1 milliampere. Most people
can voluntarily tolerate a current of only up to 30 mA applied to the hand,
which results in painful muscle contractions. To put it another way, people
can tolerate a flow of about 1.9x1017 electrons through their bodies,
every second. However a current of 20,000 Amperes means a flow of almost 1.25x1023
electrons through the body every second, which is equal to 125 thousand million
million million (the word “million” appears three times here; it
is not a mistake) electrons!

Voltage
is like the “pressure” of electricity. This pressure is measured
in units called volts. Just as more water pressure causes more water to come
in our water taps, more electrical pressure (i.e. greater voltage) causes more
electricity to flow through a medium (a human body in case of lightning). We
can get some idea of the tremendous amount of voltage of lightning by the fact
that the domestic supply in India is 240 volts, which is quite fatal. So in
fact the voltage of lightning is almost 4,000,000 times stronger than the voltage
supplied in homes!

Although
currents of such massive voltage and amperage are involved in lightning, yet
surprisingly lightning is not always fatal. It has been estimated that less
than half of the individuals struck by lightning are actually killed. There
could be two reasons for this. First is that the current of lightning is direct
in nature, which is less dangerous. The current is of two types-direct or alternating
(we know it as D.C. and A.C.). Alternating current, which is supplied in our
homes (in India), is more dangerous to life than direct current. The second
reason for lightning being relatively less damaging is the fact that it lasts
for a very small duration (just about 1/1000th of a second). It is well known
that if a small amount of current passes through the body for a longer period,
the net damage to the body may be more than when a large current passes through
the body for a much smaller period. Thus it is wrong to believe that a large
current is necessarily fatal. One can escape the ill-effects of a large current
if the exposure to the current is for a very small period. This is exactly what
happens in lightning.

When
death does occur in lightning, it is as a result of passage of electric current
through either the heart or the brain. External burns may be very minor. Some
scalp hair may be found singed. However, if there are any metallic objects in
the possession of the victim, arcing may occur, as the bolt strikes the metallic
object (Arcing is the jumping of spark between two charged objects). This arcing
may lead to the development of tremendous amounts of local heat, which may cause
the metallic objects to melt and get distorted in shape. Similarly synthetic
fabrics, such as nylon shirts, pants or even socks may melt. In my professional
life, I have seen objects like pen-knives, buckles, ear rings, car keys, getting
distorted in deaths from lightning. Similarly passage of electric current, through
objects made of iron can magnetize them. The heat produced may be so much that
it may cause burns on the body.

Adjacent
to a lightning bolt, there may be extreme pressure changes. This may rip open
the seams of shirts, pants and even shoes worn by the victim. I have seen many
police officers mistaking this finding as an indication of foul play. A false
interpretation of this finding may lead to prosecution of an innocent person.

Lichtenberg’s
flowers

One
of the most characteristic findings in a lightning death is the finding
of a fern like pattern on the body. This pattern is usually seen over the
shoulders or the flanks. Sometimes it is seen on the front of chest also.
In layman’s language, this peculiar pattern is usually referred to
“lightning marks.” Technically they are known as several different
names, some among them being “arborization,” “feathering,”
“ferning,” “filigree burns,” “arborescent
burns,” “Lichtenberg’s flowers,” or “keraunographic
markings.” The phenomenon is also known as “keraunographism”
from Greek keraunos, a thunder bolt.

Fern
Pattern:
an example ofkeraunographism

(Keraunomedicine incidentally
deals with medical aspects of lightning injuries and Keraunopathology with pathological
changes seen in lightning injuries).

A
word about why they are called Lichtenberg’s figures or flowers.
Similar figures were first noted by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799),
a preeminent German physicist and scientist during his experiments on
static electricity. He did not discover these markings on a human body
as many forensic pathologists seem to think.

Lichtenberg
entered Göttingen University in 1763, where six years later, in 1769
he became extraordinary professor of physics. This post he held until
his death in 1799. Lichtenberg did research in a wide variety of fields
— including chemistry, astronomy, geophysics, volcanology, meteorology,
and mathematics — but most important were his investigations into
physics.

Flower
Pattern:
an example ofkeraunographism

Notably,
he constructed a huge electrophorus and, in the course of experimentations,
discovered in 1777 the basic principle of modern xerographic copying. He reproduced
some images with the help of static electricity. These figures are today known
as “Lichtenberg figures.” These figures are supposed to be valuable
to electrical engineers because they enable qualitative as well as quantitative
analysis of surface electrical discharges. Lichtenberg’s flowers as seen
in the human body in cases of death due to lightning are supposed to be related
(in some way) to the original Lichtenberg’s figures produced by Lichtenberg
himself.

These
marks are NOT seen in all cases of lightning. Various studies quote different
figures, but most state that these marks are seen in between one-third to one-fifth
of all victims (20% to 33%). Curiously, these markings disappear in about 12
hours among survivors of lightning strikes and quite often in the postmortem
state too. One might think that these lesions are burns, but they are not.

Origins
of Lichtenberg’s flowers

Lichtenberg’s flowers constitute one of the biggest mysteries in forensic
medicine. It is not entirely clear, how these marks arise. There are several
theories though. Since this whole subject is so mysterious and has not been
discussed in such detail before, let us discuss it here now in some detail.

Static
electricity discharges

Some early researchers considered them a representation of static electricity
discharges along superficial vasculature (or perhaps nerves). If this were the
case, they would be seen along the lines of vasculature, but they have been
noted to cross body parts, for example, from chest to arm. Vasculature does
not cross body parts in this manner, so this theory probably is not true.

Hemoglobin
staining the tissues

One popular theory of their origin is that these marks arise due to break down
of red blood cells within the capillaries of the skin. The red colored pigment
haemoglobin escapes in the surrounding tissues and stains them, in the pattern
of a tree. It is thought that as time passes this blood dissipates away, and
that may partly explain why these markings are so evanescent.

Electron
showers eliciting an inflammatory response

Some persons believe that these dendriform markings may result from electron
showers eliciting an inflammatory response in the skin. However if this were
really an inflammatory response, the markings would not disappear so soon. Their
rapid dissipation without residual scarring thus goes against this theory.

Current
following lines of perspiration and skin moisture

Some workers have suggested that these markings are the result of current following
the lines of skin moisture. However this theory also falls in problems as it
is unable to explain their consistent shape under all manner of conditions (whether
the person was perspiring or not).

Are
these figures fractals?

Fractals are an interesting mathematical concept, where figures exhibit increasing
details with increasing manifestations. Many natural features exhibit fractal
like shapes, one notable among them being coastlines. Some workers – probably
with a mathematical bend of mind - have postulated that these figures may act
like fractals, occurring with a branched structure regardless of underlying
anatomic structures such as blood vessels or nerves.

In
their studies, positive discharges have produced fern-shaped arborization patterns,
while negative discharges produced flower or sunburst type patterns. The arborization
process is primarily determined by the magnitude and polarity of the discharge
and secondarily by skin conditions, such as perspiration and the humidity of
the surrounding air. As we have already seen, most lightning flashes are negative
in polarity, suggesting that the flower form, instead of the arborizing patterns,
should predominate in lightning strikes.

This
is however not in accordance with the observations. Mostly fern like patterns
have been seen rather than flower like ones. This has led researchers to theorize
that the markings are actually caused by positive secondary, or return, flashovers
contacting the body. These positive flashovers come from the earth (meeting
the negatively charged cloud undersurface). It is useful to remember here that
if the cloud undersurface is negatively charged, as is usually the case, a lightning
strike would initially involve a downward (cloud-to-earth) negative charge meeting
with an upward (earth-to-cloud) positive charge. Hence, these markings may be
a manifestation of this positive charge during the initial phase of a lightning
strike. It is also possible that these discharges are the result of a more complex
splash (earth-to-earth) discharge.

Value
of these markings in forensic medicine

Needless to say, these markings are very important in forensic medicine. They
can help differentiate a natural death from murder (as in the current case).
That is why, in every case of suspected death due to lightning, I carefully
search for this mark. Thankfully, in the case of Bhure Lal this mark had not
disappeared and was present over both shoulders.

Another
effect associated with lightning strike (especially in those who survive), is
the development of intense swelling of the skin at points of current entry.
This is due to the paralysis of local capillaries and lymph vessels as a result
of electric injury. The resulting dilatation of the blood vessels allows fluid
to escape and cause swelling.

Now
you can perhaps realize how I could say with dead certainty that Bhure Lal had
died as a result of lightning. The finding of distorted metal objects and the
magnetization of his pen knife led me to his cause of death. He had suffered
head injuries probably as a result of fall subsequent to lightning strike. Finally
I specifically searched for the tree like mark on the body of Bhure Lal. As
already explained, I found this mark over both his shoulders. This virtually
confirmed in my mind that Bhure Lal had actually died of lightning. I told about
my findings to the police. They agreed to my findings and dropped the case against
Ballo. This was yet another victory of forensic medicine.

(To protect the identity of individuals, the names of persons and places, and
the dates have been changed.)

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